Hollywood East? Part 3: South Shore has enjoyed rich history of theater

Dina Gerdeman

Friday

Jan 25, 2008 at 12:01 AMJan 25, 2008 at 1:26 PM

The South Shore and Cape Cod have a rich history of theater arts, a bond that goes back to summer stock theater starting in the 1930s. During local theater’s heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, young actors flocked to the area to spend summers learning to act and perform here.

Long before Plymouth Rock Studios devised plans to build a 1 million-square-foot studio with 14 sound stages to serve 2,000 actors and other talent, the South Shore and Cape Cod have enjoyed a rich history of theater arts, a bond that goes back to summer stock theater starting in the 1930s.

During local theater’s heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, young actors flocked to the area to spend summers learning to act and perform here.

Many came to the Priscilla Beach Theatre in Plymouth, founded in 1937. The theater was considered one of the most respected theater schools in America, where young up-and-coming performers like Paul Newman, Sandy Dennis, Monte Hall, Rob Reiner and Al Brooks spent a summer living in cottages, learning to act and performing in stage productions.

“It was a boot camp summer stock apprentice program,” said Geronimo Sands, 67, who bought the theater in 1962 and continues to run it today. “And in the ‘50s and ‘60s it was the golden age of live theater. It was the best.”

Many of the actors who spent a summer at the Priscilla Beach Theatre moved on to New York and were able to do well on Broadway and later in Hollywood.

“It was the place where actors cut their teeth. You lived and breathed the theater there,” said Lisa Mattei-McDonald, who spent a summer at the theater in the 1980s as an eighth-grader. “It was considered one of the best (theater schools) in the country.”

Beginning in the 1970s, the cost of putting on large-scale productions became prohibitive and interest in theater began dropping.

Four summers ago, the 200-seat barn where productions were held at the Priscilla Beach Theatre failed a town building inspection, and the barn has not been used since. The theater, which continues to train children, teens and adults, now uses a smaller 50-seat room to host productions, many of them children’s theater shows.

Sands is hopeful that if the proposed studio is built – a 1 million square-foot studio complex proposed in south Plymouth – his theater school could help feed talent there. “It would be wonderful if it happens,” Sands said.

The Cape Playhouse in Dennis, which opened in 1927 and is the nation’s oldest professional summer theater still in operation, has likewise attracted famous names, including Bette Davis, Gregory Peck, Gertrude Lawrence, Lana Turner and Helen Hayes.

Also known for theatrical productions was the South Shore Music Circus in Cohasset and its sister venue, the Cape Cod Melody Tent, which at one time acted as tent theaters in the round.

In 1932, Raymond Moore, who started the Cape Playhouse in Dennis, began hosting stage shows in Cohasset’s town hall, bringing in big names, including Humphrey Bogart, Josephine Hull and Van Heflin. By 1949, the company attracted larger audiences than the town hall could handle, and in 1950 the Cape Cod Music Circus (now the Melody Tent) opened in Hyannis. About a year later the South Shore Music Circus presented its first show, a performance of “Show Boat.”

Both the Melody Tent and Music Circus attracted stars, bringing performances by Ginger Rogers, Angela Lansbury, Bob Hope, Debbie Reynolds, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie and Rosemary Clooney, among others. Many of the shows were musicals that came for a week at a time.

“It was a blast. People stayed for a while, so by the end of the week you got to know them well,” said Scott Klingeman, current house manager who has worked at the Music Circus for 30 years and got to know Liberace and Rosemary Clooney well during their performances there. “(Some) felt almost like family. I have very fond memories of those days.”

For years, the musicals packed the house. “The shows were very popular,” said JoJo Fichtner, house manager who has also worked 30 years at the Music Circus. “A lot of senior citizens would come for the matinees, so they were usually sold out shows.”

But in the 1980s, attendance at the musicals was waning, Klingeman said, and the Music Circus eventually morphed into more of a concert hall, getting rid of weeklong theatrical productions and instead hosting singers, bands and comedians.

“The people who would go to these performances have died, the same people who would go to the Lawrence Welk Show,” Klingeman said. “You have to change and refresh yourself.”

Filming in the Bay State also dates decades back. For example, in the 1960s, Faye Dunnaway and Steve McQueen were in Boston shooting the original “Thomas Crown Affair;” “Jaws,” starring Richard Dreyfuss, was filmed in Martha’s Vineyard in the 1970s; and the movie “The Verdict,” released in 1982, was shot in Boston with Paul Newman.

More filmmakers are looking to make movies here these days, thanks to recently approved tax incentives. Last year, after legislators approved the incentives, eight movies were filmed in the state, including “The Box” starring Cameron Diaz in Kingston.

Dina Gerdeman may be reached at dgerdeman@ledger.com.

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